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No, not every kid inherits his father’s mantle, like Peyton and Eli Manning, who encountered fame and fortune in the National Football League two decades after dad Archie was the man of the hour with the New Orleans Saints.

“Obviously, you operate on the theory that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree,” explains B.C. Lions head coach and GM Wally Buono. “It’s like when I had Junior Ah You’s son, Harland. He (a defensive end, like his dad) went to BYU. And he was OK.”

Junior Ah You, voted one of the top 50 players of all time in a TSN poll, played 129 games and 10 seasons in the Canadian Football League. Harland Ah You’s career lasted 10 games in total.

Auston Johnson, a rookie linebacker at Lions training camp, seems to find all of this two-generation talk tedious. He has been over it many times before. That a reporter would want to talk about his involvement with the Lions based on genetics, rather than his contribution and talent, irks him a little, though he is too polite and deferential to make it an issue.

“He’s Alondra, I’m Auston,” Johnson explains. “Obviously, he’s a great person I look up to. I strive to get to that level. Hopefully, one day, if I get the opportunity, if I work hard and stay late, I get to that point. I guess only time will tell.”

This is Auston Johnson’s first pro camp. His dad, Canadian Football Hall of Fame linebacker Alondra Johnson, has attended Lions camps before, both as a player and a guest coach.

Now 50, Alondra Johnson played for the Lions from 1989-90, but he is best known for his 13 seasons with the Calgary Stampeders, during which he was a three-time Grey Cup champion, three-time All-CFL and a finalist for the league’s most outstanding defensive player award.

His son, who has dual citizenship (having been born in Calgary when Alondra played there), played college football at South Dakota but went unclaimed in the 2015 CFL draft.

As if to stake out his own identity, Auston came to Lions camp as a linebacker but was converted to fullback in the first week, a position where he blocks those same linebackers whose idea of Utopia is the smell of a quarterback’s fear. The fullback experiment ended Thursday when he was switched back to his original position. Johnson played inside linebacker at South Dakota.

“He’s 230 pounds,” Buono said. “And he’s a 4.7 (40-yard dash time) guy. Now, can he be physical? Can he make it on (special) teams? To make it in the CFL, he’ll need to do that. One thing we know, he’s worked very hard to get here.”

After high bench-press totals, low 40-yard times and neck widths, football teams love “intangibles” the most. That’s why the Lions are giving Johnson a shot. His talent may not be exceptional, but his eagerness to play the pro game is. Last year, he worked at lowering his 40 time from a middling 4.86 to an acceptable 4.68.

“It’s something I always wanted to do since I was a kid,” Johnson says. “I love the game.”

But is it possible to love something too much?

Johnson is aware his father has added his name to a $200 million class-action lawsuit against the league by scores of retired CFL players suffering various levels of cognitive distress. In March, the NFL’s leading voice on player health and safety, Jeff Miller, admitted in front of a congressional roundtable that there is a link between playing football and contracting CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy), a degenerative brain disease. Alondra Johnson was the fourth player to publicly join the suit against the CFL last year.

“The lawsuit is important,” Alondra Johnson told Postmedia News, through his lawyer. “Some players need help now. Some players need help later. But players need to know. Things are already changing because of this to make the sport safer for my son to play. When I was in training camp, we had two-a-day hitting practices. That has stopped. As a family we have talked about concussions and how the game has changed since I played.

He adds: “Auston will make his own choice about playing. I am very proud of my son and his dream of becoming a professional football player.”

At 23, Auston Johnson can only think in terms of now, this week, burning not to follow his father’s ample legacy but simply fanning the flame to keep his personal dream alive.

“I’ve never really discussed it (lawsuit) with him,” Auston admits. “For me, it’s just great to be out here. I look forward to every practice, just to have a chance to play this game.”

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